This sense of identification with the empire was extreme.
In fact, you could say that Americans
thought about empire, and thought about their
place in it well before anybody bothered
to think about the empire in Britain itself.
Now, I don't mean to say that the British
policy makers had no awareness of what we call
the empire.
That they didn't have the colonial administration.
That there weren't occasional acts of parliament and more
regular supervision, more regular supervision by the board of trade.
Certainly, all this is true.
There's in fact a new minister for the southern
department who's, who's remit is to look after the colonies.
There's an imperial policy but the idea of an empire as this entity,
a greater Britain that includes Americans,
British English speaking people everywhere, people
who enjoy a tradition of liberty and the greatest claim that Britain's made.
What made them proud to be British is that they had a constitution.